The Dinner Table Detective First Impressions

Written by Ross Locksley on 02 May 2025

Amazon Prime seem to be picking up on this anime fad that appeared out of nowhere and are now scrambling to find some top tier titles to entice people over to their platform. They're doing a decent job too, having picked up Gundam Gquuuuuux and Übel Blatt, but can The Dinner Table Detective keep the trend of high-quality titles going, or are they still feeling their way?

As a fan of Columbo (to the extent I have a signed photo of Peter Falk in my office) I'm certainly no stranger to crime thrillers with quirky characters and The Dinner Table Detective has one of its own - our heroine is a Mamoru Miyano, an heiress dilettante with an interest in crime, hiding her heritage by dressing down and employed by the local police department as Reiko Houshou. (Makes the police background checks pretty worthless when you think about it).

Working alongside the over-confident and loud son of a  motor legacy, Inspector Kazamatsuri, she proves to be a poor detective and takes guidance from her savvy new butler Kageyama, who not-so-subtly points out her shortcomings with sharp barbs while he effortlessly picks up clues along the way.

Based on a three-book series of mystery novels by Tokuya Higashigawa from 2010, a manga adaptation followed in 2011. He delivered a follow up  novel in 2021 and now the series has been adapted for television.

Just one of the faces Mamoru makes as her own Butler casually insults her intelligence.

I watched the first two episodes so that I could get a feel for how the mysteries are formed and the resolutions to any red-herrings and clues. Following an assault on a dinner guest, one of three women in red dresses fit the attackers description and it's up to the team to figure out whodunnit. The episodes make two of the suspects appear pretty unlikeable, while a mousy third is the least likely suspect, and therefore in television detective terms, almost certainly the one that did it. I had really hoped we might get a show that goes against type, but honestly to anyone who follows such series, it's all fairly by-the-numbers. 

So if we're going to take a first impression, it's probably a fairly middling one. The animation budget is nicely covered by some smart directing touches, but it's clear that this isn't a costly show. The English dub occasionally verges on irritating, so I'd certainly recommend watching it in Japanese if you can. The writing so far is fine, if not overly complex or challenging, it's pretty much an average detective show much as we'd make in the West - create an investigating character with a hook, then lead them through some crime scenarios. There's no romantic intrigue yet, so it lacks the "will they/won't they" of something like Castle and I'm really hoping Mamoru grows and doesn't just let the Butler do all the work. His put downs can be quite fun though.

Still, if you're a fan of crime drama and looking for something that isn't full of kinetic, world-ending action then The Dinner Table Detective might be an entertaining aside for an episode or two.